Which of the Current/New Macs works with SL ?

I am wanting to buy a new mac, however, obviously Second Life capability is essential.

Which of the new Macs support Second Life ?

thanks in advance

It runs quite well on my Mac Pro Tower, (December 2007 version), with the ATI X1900 video card in it. But that is pretty much the top of the line, for Mac.

I have heard it runs fine on most, if not all, of the desktop iMacs.

It will run on a Mac Mini, but will be VERY slow. Can't recommend the Mac Mini as an SL machine unless you are desperate to have both Mac and SL as cheaply as possible.

The laptop Macs are problematic. Many have issues with SL, due to graphics card and/or driver limitations.

I'm using a MacBook, vintage June 2007, with the dual core 2.16 GHz processor and 2GB ram. SL seems to run all right on there (though I don't have anything to compare it with).

Only problem is that SL locks up if I shut the MacBook while I'm logged in. Just have to work around that.

HTH

Dave

Only machines that it won't play fair with at the moment still seem to be the current generation of MacBook Pros.

I have a Mac Pro with NVidia 8800 GT and for the most part it runs great; I have it on Ultra settings (everything switched on, everything at full) with the minimum draw distance (64m) since there are few places that really require it to be higher anyway.

My MacBook Pro runs SL just fine. Mine is the June 2007 version (second to latest), with...

- 2.4GHz Core Duo processors
- OS 10.5.2, latest updates (including graphics update)
- NVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card
- Stock 2GB RAM

I have NOT updated the viewer to the latest, though. I'm staying with 1.19.0.5 until they pry it from my cold, dead avatar hands.

But again: no crashes, very little performance problems.

current Macbook Pros I thought were running fine now? people have claimed as such....

MBPs with nvidia 8600 are running SL much better now, even with 1.19.1.4. there are issues with SL, Macs and AT&T DSL routers to be aware of though. I'm running Vista via bootcamp for SL on a MBP. A MacPro with an 8800 would be a good choice for a high end system.

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-972?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=58661#action_58661

I just ordered the new iMac with the NVIDIA 8800 GS graphics card. I just hope it wont take months and several driver updates for it it run properly. Since it will take 10 days to get here - has anyone already gotten a hold of it and can calm me down?

I have this macbook pro config and sl runs like crap. Frequent beachballs and lockups galoe.

Where can I get a copy of the 1.19.0.5 client?

It's not too bad on the Core 2 Duo Minis...

my mac pro w/ 8800 runs SL like crap. Everything else is perfect. SL can only utilize one core and if that core hits 100% it'll freeze. This is with draw set to 256m, however, as i tend to be out in open space. The nicholaz patch works much better, but since it doesnt have enabled antiailiasing for the mac version, it looks like crap. so I balance the two, either runs like crap or looks like crap... kind of like my car.

Good news/bad news...

1. It flies in performance. Sim FPS reads 45 - the perf monitor hovers near or at 45 FPS. Rapid transitions (spinning, motion in scripted vehicles) will drop that down to around 30 - draw set from 64m to 512m (512m will bog it down to the 20s, and 10s in rapid viewing).

2. I'm glued to the entry sim. If I try to TP, or even nudge my way across to a neighboring sim - spinning beach ball (I just exit now before the beachball). Inside the sim - it works just fine for the most part.

That's it so far - there are some troubling issues with the aluminum Mac keyboard, but I'll work around them.... main objective is to get across a sim border, lest SL become a one-sim world for me.

Have tried optional port, and regular ports, various adjustments to networking - no avail yet - crossing a sim is kaput.

I used to be on with a Dell desktop; just loaded onto a MacBook Pro (Feb 2008 purchase) and seems to work fine.

Only issue - I feel like a newbie without being able to right click! Anyone willing to send me an email with a "how to re-learn SL on a mac" advice would earn my undying gratitude! [email]emerson.flute@gmail.com[/email] if you prefer to help me offline. Thanks!

Hi Emerson

I have a Kensington wireless mouse with right and left buttons and a scroll wheel.

Works great.

Patio

@ Cobb

I have the same configuration - sim crossing is no problem. Performance is great, when it runs - but I tend to freeze a lot, at least in the release clients. After freezing a few times, the whole computer is stuck and I must reboot. No other program ever manages that.

So I mostly gave up on the release client and use the Nicholaz builds (eyecandy and bleeding edge) instead.

And I noticed a weird problem with textures not loading.. Every now and then everything stays grey. No idea, if that has anything to do with the computer though. Frame rates of 60+ are no fun, if everything is just grey in grey

Hey Penn, et. al. - I was able to get stable sim crossings... till 10.5.3 today and it was deja vu all over again...

Textures, clothing, anything scripted was flashing, blurring, blinking, mangling - I managed to fly to coordinates 1550, -200, 337 while staying in the same sim without crashing - just kept sailing..

did a complete reinstall, but that just brought things back to the CPU usage shooting over 100% and the affiliated timeouts - which suck, because if I'm in motion of any kind - flying, walking, and the CPU overload occurs - my next position (when it calms down) may be inside someone's house, skybox, underground...

Viewer definitely needs some work - or I've definitely got a bust on this iMac - which sucks, cuz it's only a week old.... my first Apple - mighty mouse burned up on the third day - replaced the next day but man, this is frustration city - newbieness aside...

HI Cobb,

it can´t be the computer type as such, because I have no such problems, and the same configuration. The upgrade to 10.5.3 went without problems.

Of course there could be something wrong with your specific computer. The other culprit I can think off is your internet connection. Have you checked if that is stable?

I know about the flying off into the distance problem, I have had that on several computers. It seems to happen if the connection to the sim is somehow gone for a bit - the viewer knows you are flying and therefore just goes on moving the avatar. Eventually you snap back to the original position or the program crashes. No idea if that makes sense, technically, but that was my impression. It does not happen more often on the new mac than on the old and not all that often. And all in all it is only a minor annoyance.

Another thought: there is some kind of issue with the release client and the Mighty mouse. I have not checked it out because I loath that thing and dumped it into the nearest drawer as soon as I found it. Do you have a different USB mouse around?

In any case, the LL viewer editions are iffy, anyway. You do know that Barney Boomslang has build the Nicholaz Beresford viewers for the mac? I suggest you check them out, because I find them to be lots more stable:

http://radio-boomslang.shacknet.nu/~bb/articles/nicholaz-edition-mac/index.html

Which viewer are you using? The Release Client is driving me nuts anyway. I dutifully use it once a day to supply the Lindens with Crash data, and then swap back to the Nicholaz edition.

two ways to right click...
1) hold the control key down while you click
2) go to system preferences, keyboard and mouse, trackpad... and enable secondary click using two fingers

I was able to get the regular viewer working where I could stay in world with fewer problems by manually entering a slew of DNS entries into both my router and the system.

It resumes normal operation then for another 10-15 minutes, it seems unconnected to any action in SL (such as turning, zooming, flying, typing - it just goes to the beachball)

As for the Barney/Nicholaz viewers, they did improve stability with short or no beachballs, but had a rather rough side effect on my avatar, rendering me at every boot in a pattern of textures, just me, nothing else - replacing the clothing would fix it, rebaking would not. Restart would have to go thru the same hoops - so I pulled it.

I was reading on macfixit about some reports of CPU spking on 10.5.3 due to proxies (.pac) files, but I've got none set - but I managed to have Activity Monitor open, and SL was the spike - hittin' 102-105% and lingerin', then droppin' back in about 10 seconds.

Still tinkerin' tho - was planning to change service - not necessarily service providers, but to business class... if it weren't for the PC's workin' ok on the same AIO Modem/router on SL - I'd have done so already... still forging ahead.

Others like yourself report that it works on exactly the same setup (except for possibly ISP) has me a bit baffled... pretty sure bootcamp in XP would work, but by the OpenGL/Java/Quicktimeness of it all, I thought for sure SL would be the smoother of the rides on just OSX.

I have a MBP, spring 2007, 2Ghz Intel 2 core duo, 2Gb RAM, OS X 10.4.11

SL client 1.19.1.4 w/Nicholaz EC

But...I can't teleport between sims without beling logged off, upload images or sounds, save a snapshot to disk, save a Notecard, buy more than 1,000 L at a time, and Voice and streaming Audio & Video buttons appear at their own whim (altho. activated in Prefs). Otherwise, it's JUST FINE...


-V

In reply to Pennsylvania's post........I have the new iMac with Nv 8800 and love it!
It runs SL smoothly and only had one problem which I corrected by reading the Mac group chat. The forever dreaded beach ball rolling and freezes every few minutes were causing me a lot of dread and even thoughts of returning this puter to Apple ........
then someone mentioned there was a problem with open GL and suggested going to edit/prefs/graphics/ advanced and turning off VBO ( unchecking that box) to turn off the open GL . Voila! no more freezes no more beachball when in world!

So Pennsylvania........ you can be eagerly awaiting your new iMac because it is truely a wonderful experience

Hoo